Participant response systems for enabling participants of an event to enter responses to posed questions, motions or the like are well known in the art and have wide applicability. For example, during a conference, seminar or the like, participants can be provided with handsets that enable the participants to respond to questions, or to vote on motions raised during the conference or seminar. In the entertainment field, audience members can be provided with handsets that enable the audience members to vote for entertainment programmes or sports events. These participant response systems are also applicable in the field of education. Participants can be provided with handsets that enable the participants to answer questions posed during lessons, tests or quizzes. Of significant advantage, these participant response systems provide immediate feedback to presenters, facilitators, entertainment programme producers, or event organizers. With respect to the field of education, research shows that facilitators teach better and participants learn better when there is rapid feedback concerning the state of participants' comprehension or understanding. It is therefore not surprising that such participant response systems are gaining wide acceptance in the field of education.
Participant response systems fall generally into two categories, namely wired and wireless participant response systems. In wired participant response systems, the response devices used by participants to respond to posed questions or to vote on motions are typically physically connected to a local area network and communicate with a base or host computer. In wireless participant response systems, the response devices used by participants to respond to posed questions or to vote on motions communicate with the host computer via wireless communication links. Whether wired or wireless, many different types of participant response systems have been considered.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,247,908 to Lockhart, Jr et al. discloses a two-way communication system for use with a host computer that includes a control unit, a base station and multiple, hand-held, portable radio/data terminal units. The control unit interfaces directly with the host computer but uses a radio link to interface with the portable radio/data terminal units. Each portable radio/data terminal unit includes a two-way radio and a data terminal. The data terminal includes a keyboard for data entry and an LED display for readout of either received data or locally generated data. The host computer initiates communication through polling and/or selection of portable radio/data terminal units via the control unit. The control unit, in response to a “poll” from the host computer, answers by sending either a previously received message from a portable radio/data terminal unit, or if no message has been received, a “no message” response. Polling by the control unit is an invitation to the portable radio/data terminal units to send data to the control unit to be stored, grouped if necessary and sent on to the host computer. The control unit polls the portable radio/data terminal units by address in a particular sequence. The control unit transmits acknowledgements to the portable radio/data terminal units for received data on the next polling cycle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,002,491 to Abrahamson et al. discloses an interactive electronic classroom system for enabling facilitators to teach participants concepts and to receive immediate feedback regarding how well the participants have learned the taught concepts. Structure is provided for enabling participants to proceed in lockstep or at their own pace through exercises and quizzes, responding electronically to questions asked, the facilitator being able to receive the responses, and to interpret a readout, in histogram or other graphic display form, of participant responses. The electronic classroom comprises a central computer and a plurality of participant computers, which range from simple devices to full fledged personal computers, connected to the central computer over a network. Optional peripheral hardware, such as video cassette recorders (VCRs) or other recording/reproducing devices, may be used to provide lessons to participants in association with the computer network.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,790,045 to Drimmer discloses a method and system for analyzing participant performance by classifying participant performance into discrete performance classifications associated with corresponding activities related to an electronic course. An observed participant performance level for at least one of the performance classifications is measured. A benchmark performance level or range is established for one or more of the performance classifications. It is then determined whether the observed participant performance level is compliant with the established benchmark performance level for the at least one performance classification. Instructive feedback is determined for the observed participant based upon any material deviation of the observed participant performance from at least one benchmark.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0072136 to Roschelle et al. discloses a method and system for assessing a participant's understanding of a process that may unfold over time and space. The system comprises thin client devices in the form of wireless, hand-held, palm-sized computers that communicate with a host workstation. The system provides a sophisticated approach of directing participants to perform self-explanation, and enables instructors to enhance the value of this pedagogical process by providing meaningful and rapid feedback in a classroom setting.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,381,444 to Aggarwal et al. describes a system for implementing a virtual class and distance education via a computer network. The process carried out by the system involves receiving signals from one or more instructor entities, the signals including lesson material designated as belonging to one or more interest groups. The lesson material is sent in advance to student entities listed in one or more of the interest groups to which the lesson material is designated as belonging. Signals from one or more student entities are received requesting admission to a particular class and instructions are sent to student entities to control the display and execution of the lesson material.
Current commercial response systems such as the ActivExpression™ produced by Promethean Limited of Blackburn, Lancashire, UK and CPSPulse™ produced by eInstruction of Denton, Tex., USA allow questions to be administered, the solutions to which are equations that must be entered as strings of text. Unfortunately, the grading engine that assesses the solutions to these questions performs simple string comparison. As a result, these systems require perfect matching of the entered solution to the instructor's solution potentially resulting in the errors in grading of the assessments.
A research paper presented at the 2nd International Conference on Digital Information Management (ICDIM'07) held Oct. 28-31, 2007 entitled “Equivalence Detection Using Parse-tree Normalization for Math Search” authored by Shatnawi et al. describes a technique for searching for mathematical equations on the World Wide Web. The research paper describes the difficult challenge of determining mathematical equivalence between a search term and what may be presented on the Web. The research relates to implementing a technique that transforms a user's mathematical search query into a unique normalized form. Normalization is conducted in two ways, algebraic and structural.
Although prior art participant response systems allow questionnaires to be administered to participants and response data gathered, these participant response systems typically have limited functionality for grading equation-based assessments in a quick, automated manner. Grading of equation-based assessments can be prone to errors, as an equation-based question may have more than one correct solution. For example, the equation y=2x2−2 may be correctly factored either as 2(x+1)(x−1) or as 2(x−1)(x+1). However, if a facilitator of a participant group defines the solution as 2(x+1)(x−1) and a participant enters a response of 2(x−1)(x+1), the participant's response may be graded as incorrect. Still other correct solutions to this question exist, which may also not be graded as correct when submitted as responses.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a novel equation-based assessment grading method and a novel participant response system employing the method.